press release

Press Release

Liechtensteiner Volksblatt to use North Atlantic Publishing Systems' NTS for Automated Quark-XML-HTML Conversion

First European newspaper installation of NTS converts daily page production to XML. Archives also to go on-line.

Concord, MA, February 8, 2002 – North Atlantic Publishing Systems, Inc., a leading provider of content, workflow and XML solutions, today announced an agreement with GMG Juris Verlag, in Schaan, Principality of Liechtenstein, to provide automated Quark-to-XML-to-HTML conversion for the online edition of the daily national newspaper, Liechtensteiner Volksblatt.

Using NTS, North Atlantic's award-winning Quark and Word to XML conversion software, GMG will automate the process of creating XML from both newly created and legacy documents. When the Volksblatt's daily page production is finalized in Quark, NTS will take over the conversion process. Working in the background, NTS will batch-process Quark pages and convert them to XML. From XML, NTS will write the XML tags to a database from which HTML will be generated.

The end result for the Liechtensteiner Volksblatt will be an expanded online edition, produced under tighter deadline and with considerably less manual intervention and production costs. Additionally, the Volksblatt will enlarge the current edition archive and begin to convert legacy pages to the expanded archives. The Volksblatt, which provides the Principality of Liechtenstein with its daily national edition, seeks to enlarge its online audience by offering more local news coverage and by making a more comprehensive archiving asset available.

Ivo Elkuch, the Managing Director of GMG Juris Verlag, evaluated several XML conversion solutions before choosing NTS. "We had very tight turnaround deadlines for the page conversion. I needed extremely fast page processing, minimal operator intervention, and the conversion flexibility to deal with atypical Quark styling applications. NTS was the only solution giving us all three."

Peter Baumgartner, President of North Atlantic Publishing Systems, saw this as a major development for newspapers striving for ROI with their online editions. "Newspapers around the world are using Quark to produce their final printed pages. Until now, the process of getting that Quark-based material online was too often a labor-intensive, cut-and-paste operation, or alternatively, only performed by high-end print-web delivery systems. NTS automates the Quark extraction and HTML markup at a price point which makes economic sense."

About North Atlantic Publishing Systems, Inc.

North Atlantic Publishing Systems develops web-based, cross-platform workflow, asset and content management systems, and XML conversion solutions for publishers. Since 1988, North Atlantic has dedicated itself to providing custom publishing solutions from standard components. Our goal is to utilize the latest technologies to create a seamless publishing environment enabling collaboration among users regardless of their locations, application choices, platforms, or intended media.

An open approach and use of standards such as Java, ASP, SQL, and XML enable the creation of enterprise scale solutions. NTS, the company's innovative product for XML conversion of Quark and Word documents, was recently recognized by the editors of the Seybold Report on Publishing Systems as one of their "Hot Picks" for the Seybold Boston 2001 Exposition.

For more information about North Atlantic Publishing Systems and its products, visit the company's web site at http://www.napsys.com.

Contact

Dan Nigloschy
VP, Sales and Marketing
North Atlantic Publishing Systems, Inc.
(978) 371-8989
DanielN@napsys.com